Cyprotex PLC (AIM:CRX), the preclinical ADME-Tox services company, today announces a new licensing agreement with Sigma® Life Science (“Sigma”), the innovative biological products and services business of Sigma Aldrich® Corporation (NASDAQ:SIAL).

Sigma Life Science has applied its exclusive CompoZr® Zinc Finger Nuclease technology to the ADME-Tox field to create a range of proprietary cell-based assays for drug candidate screening. Cyprotex will add this technology to its screening services in an agreement that represents the first non-exclusive license granted by Sigma for this novel technology. Cyprotex will be announcing the launch of these new services at the 18th North American International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX) conference this month.

In line with recent guidance from both the FDA and EMA to decrease the possibility of adverse drug-transporter based interactions, Sigma’s new single and double functional knockout transporter services will allow Cyprotex to offer its customers detailed, specific, mechanistic assays to investigate the interaction of test compounds with MDR1 (P-gp), BCRP and MRP2 transporters.

Current efflux transporter assays often use standard chemical inhibitors that can interact with multiple transporters simultaneously which may produce an ambiguous representation of a drug candidate’s true potential for drug-drug interactions. Using the Sigma knockout transporter cell assays, transporter activity can be determined without the need for chemical inhibitors and is considered to be more physiologically relevant than many other cell-based systems as multiple transporters are expressed in a human cell line.

Dr. Anthony Baxter, Chief Executive Officer of Cyprotex, said: “I am delighted to be able to announce our new licensing agreement with Sigma Life Science which enables Cyprotex to be one of the first companies to offer knockout transporter screening services based on Zinc Finger Nuclease technology. This service expands our already extensive range of transporter services provided via our in-house capabilities and through our partnership with Solvo.”

“The aim of our ADME/Tox licensing program is to partner with world leading service providers and so we are thrilled to be working with Cyprotex” said Dr. Paul Brooks, Market Segment Manager, Sigma Life Science. “These novel assays are key products of our highly predictive suite of engineered cell lines and transgenic animal models, and were generated with our proprietary CompoZr® Zinc Finger Nuclease technology.”